“Platform-as-a-Service” (also commonly referred to as “PaaS”) generally describes a suite of technologies provided by a service provider as an integrated solution that enables a web developer (or any other application developer) to build, deploy and manage the life cycle of a web application (or any other type of networked application). One primary component of PaaS is a “cloud-computing platform” which is a network (e.g., Internet, etc.) infrastructure run and maintained by the service provider upon which developed web applications may be deployed. By providing the hardware resources and software layers required to robustly run a web application, the cloud computing platform enables developers to focus on the development of the web application, itself, and leave the logistics of scalability and other computing and storage resource requirements (e.g., data storage, database access, processing power, facilities, power and bandwidth, etc.) to the cloud computing platform (e.g., at a cost charged by the service provider). A service provider may additionally provide a plug-in component to a traditional IDE (i.e., integrated development environment) that assists a developer who creates web applications using the IDE to properly structure, develop and test such applications in a manner that is compatible with the service provider's cloud computing platform. Once the developer completes a web application using the IDE, the plug-in component assists the developer in deploying the web application into the cloud computing platform.
However, due to complexities in providing flexible and scalable cloud computing platforms, PaaS is offered by few service providers. Current offerings of cloud computing platforms provide limited choices in the computer languages, application frameworks, runtime environments, available services and other technology options that may be selected to create a web application that can be launched in the cloud computing platform. For example, a cloud computing platform that only supports a runtime environment such as .NET® runtime environment made available by Microsoft would not be suitable for an enterprise with a technology development policy that requires development of web applications using an open source runtime environment such as the Apache Tomcat™ application server. Furthermore, software layers of current cloud computing platforms are inextricably coupled to the hardware resources (e.g., servers, storage, data centers, etc.) upon which they are built, making any enterprise requested customization, modification and/or portability of functionality prohibitive. Such inflexibility and limited choices make adoption of current PaaS more suitable for small start-up companies than for sophisticated enterprises that need to address issues such as governance, security, privacy and higher levels of control over web applications (service level requirements, scalability, fault tolerance etc.).